National Science Week

A huge thank you to Rheanna Lang (and Maree Timms from Galen, plus all the other DTAC committee members) for organising early career academics from the Australian Research Council Centre’s of Excellence for “Engineering Quantum Systems (EQUS)” and “Dark Matter Particle Physics” to come to Wangaratta this week!

On Wednesday night, a mighty team of WHS staff took on teams from Galen and Cathedral, plus the broader community, in a trivia competition with a science-twist. We achieved third place, being a redemption from the arguably poor form displayed in the Wangaratta West Primary School trivia night last term.

On Thursday, our invited Physicists backed up from hosting a late-night trivia competition to present four hours of workshops on their areas of research for our students. Plenty of fantastic questions were asked by our students, with the academics being impressed with the depth of understanding displayed by those in Years 7, 8 and 9. With recent reports looking at the future quantum technologies workforce estimating 14,000 new jobs by 2040, hopefully we have sparked some students to join the future quantum industry workforce!

The ‘National Quantum & Dark Matter Road Trip’ started from Melbourne, and travelled to Korumburra, Mallacoota, Eden, Corryong and Albury, before arriving here. They are now off to Terang, Lavers Hill and Apollo Bay before returning to Melbourne to jump into their Queensland tour. Their team includes PhD students and researchers from universities across Queensland, NSW, ACT, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, and India. So, our attending students were provided exposure to study and research pathways in STEM, both within Australia and across the globe.

If you’d like to follow their travels, or learn more about their cutting-edge research, check out https://www.qdmroadtrip.org/